1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conference system for holding a conference on a network by using a button telephone device and a conference server having a computer telephony integration (CTI) system, and to a conference telephone line setting method therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In known conventional conference systems, a conference is held on a network by establishing one-to-many communication or many-to-many communication through communication lines such as telephone lines, dedicated lines, and the Internet. Applied technologies thereof have been increasingly developed. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2003-324705 discloses a video conference system using a client-server system in which a relay server and a plurality of communication terminals are connected via a communication network. Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2006-236178 discloses a video conference system using a client-server system in which a management server and clients are connected via a network.
Specifically, in the system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2003-324705, when the relay server and the plurality of communication terminals perform communication, a conference can be held among the communication terminals. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2003-324705 describes a function in which, when an organizer reserves a conference in the relay server, prospective participants' intentions to participate in the conference can be confirmed, which is convenient for users. Further, in the system, email notifying date and time at which the conference is held is sent to the prospective participants of the conference.
In the system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2006-236178, the management server mediates between the clients. In a technical aspect, the management server sends connection destination location information to each of the clients and connection is made between the clients in the disclosed system.
However, in the video conference system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2003-324705, in which, when an organizer reserves a conference in the relay server, prospective participants' intentions to participate in the conference can be confirmed, special software needs to be operated all the time in the communication terminals of the users. Unless conferences are frequently held, since the special software occupies useful systems of computers serving as the communication terminals, it is not effective. Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2003-324705 describes that email sent from the relay server includes, in addition to the conference date and time, an IP address and an authentication ID which are necessary to access the relay server. In this case, each user needs to be authenticated manually after accessing the relay server.
In the video conference system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2006-236178, a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHOP) function is used to assign IP addresses to the clients and connection destination address information is obtained, so the video conference system can be used in a WAN or a LAN. However, the video conference system cannot function in the world wide web (WWW). Further, to use the video conference system, the user needs to manually input a user ID from the client to the management server.